Journal For Plague Lovers - Retrospective

[AK47]

I still don't like the fact the band butchered it lyrically - way too much repetition on the verses and choruses. It would have made more of an impact if they had the balls to work all of the remaining lyrics into each song. Musically, it's fine but it's not taxing to play.

[Bobafettish]

Wonder why this got bumped?

Anyway. Overall it's a great album, the only thing I really disliked in hindsight is that William's Last Words got turned into something that it's not. The music media at the time effectively seeing it as Richey's suicide note, which when you look at the unedited lyrics, it doesn't seem to be at all.

[UEF]

Probably their best 'modern era' album... although it's the best part of 10 years old

[A boy called Rita]

Originally Posted by UEF

Probably their best 'modern era' album... although it's the best part of 10 years old

Where on earth does the time go?!

[UEF]

Originally Posted by A boy called Rita

Where on earth does the time go?!

I know. It doesn't feel like the same gap between 97 and 2007!

[Tim]

Time is compressed or falling away like wet cake... i forget which.

Originally Posted by Bobafettish

Wonder why this got bumped?

Anyway. Overall it's a great album, the only thing I really disliked in hindsight is that William's Last Words got turned into something that it's not. The music media at the time effectively seeing it as Richey's suicide note, which when you look at the unedited lyrics, it doesn't seem to be at all.

I hated this once but i've made my peace with it i think. They've always formed some sort of narrative from the screed of words written, look at how repetitive design for life turned out from the original set of double lyrics.

[Bobafettish]

Originally Posted by Tim

I hated this once but i've made my peace with it i think. They've always formed some sort of narrative from the screed of words written, look at how repetitive design for life turned out from the original set of double lyrics.

Yeah totally, have we ever seen the original Holy Bible lyrics? It would be interesting to see how their editing process has changed over the years.

[Europa Gluten Free]

A wonderful piece of art. But it's not an album I return to to actually listen to it very often.

[sculptureofabloke]

Cracked of an album, shame they dropped it like a hot rock. Must've been stewing for ages whether to use Richey's leftover lyrics or not and wondering whether he'd have liked what they did with em, and whether the fans would. Totally understandable why they'd want to avoid lyrics from the period, hats off to em for doing the Holy Bible tours. Must be awkward enough for any band when the fans want them to focus on a certain period of their career. Weird to think that Wayne Murray's been touring with em longer than Richey was and how, while Richey has only been directly involved in just over 1/3 of their material, and only about 1/5 of their time as a band, well, old songs leave long shadows.

[tomd2103]

It is a great album, which in my opinion could only be improved by replacing the title track with Bag Lady and having William's Last Words as the hidden track, making it a 12 track album. Definitely in my top 5 Manics albums though.

Seem to recall James saying something about them not being particularly fond of it and found the whole process tough going. Understandable really.

[Mr Richey]

Still my second favourite Manics album.

[Europa Gluten Free]

And just a point to make - this was a magical time to be a Manics fan. Something that maybe wasn't appreciated at the time. It was a serious project between what we can now see was the bluster and superficiality and cynicism of SATT and PFAYM.

[UEF]

Their first/only decent album cover design too

[Automatik]

I still listen to it frequently - the remixes of it just as much, too.

Some of the remixes (Jonathan Krisp/Bag Lady, Errors/All Is Vanity, but also the Underworld remix of William's Last Words that made it onto the Welsh Rock For Refugees compilation) are as good as or even better than the originals.

Otherwise my criticism of JFPL (original) is the standard: butchered lyrics, for the most part. Musically I don't find it as simple as it may technically be.

[Bobafettish]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

And just a point to make - this was a magical time to be a Manics fan. Something that maybe wasn't appreciated at the time. It was a serious project between what we can now see was the bluster and superficiality and cynicism of SATT and PFAYM.

I think the irony here is that, for all the Postcards talk of 'mass communication', JFPL got much more media attention, acclaim and connected in a much more mainstream way.